Rookie Cop Fired, Charged After Filmed Hitting Handcuffed Woman

A Rookie cop for the Jacksonville sheriff’s office in Florida has been fired and charged with battery after video emerged of him hitting and smashing a woman’s face into pavement at a bar, and then later striking her again while she was handcuffed in custody.

Undersheriff Pat Ivey said Thursday that footage of the latter shows 26-year-old probationary patrol officer Akinyemi Borisade hitting Mayra Martinez while she was being checked into the Duval County Jail.

Martinez, 31, was arrested at around 5 p.m. on Wednesday at Scores Bar on the Southside of Jacksonville, after she reportedly quit her job on the first day of work and got drunk and belligerent.

According to police reports, Borisade and another officer showed up at the bar to escort her off the property when she resisted their efforts to handcuff her. She was charged with trespassing and resisting police.

Dash-cam footage recorded form the bar obtained by the Florida Times-Union shows the two officers on top of Martinez in the parking lot, and Borisade is seen pummeling her and smashing her face into the ground as she screams, “I didn’t do anything!”

Martinez reportedly continued to fight after she was placed inside a patrol car and required more restraints than just handcuffs. The footage recorded from inside the jail shows the woman walking toward Borisade in the processing area before he grabs her by both arms and pushes her up against a wall.

Martinez then attempts to kick the officer twice and Borisade is seen taking four swings at her with his right arm, landing the first to her stomach and the rest to her face and upper body.

The footage then shows another officer walk over to the two while the woman is slumped over a trash can being restrained, and she is then seen collapsing to the floor as the cops walk away.

Watch the raw footage:

Following the incident, corrections officers who witnessed what occurred reported it to their supervisors, and the JSO Integrity Unit launched an investigation.

Undersheriff Ivey said Borisade was promptly charged with battery and fired. Because he was a rookie probationary officer, he can’t appeal his firing, but he can ask for a name-clearing hearing with JSO that would allow him to retain the ability to be an officer with another agency if he passes.

Ivey asserted that the correct way to handle the situation at the jail could have been to turn Martinez around and hold her “in a transporting position that they are trained in,” and maintained that “there was no need to strike her.”

Police said Martinez was not hospitalized as a result of the incident, though her mugshot shows scrapes and swelling to her face, apparently from the interaction when officers first arrived at the bar and Borisade was filmed smashing it into the pavement by the back of her head.

The officers who stood and watched Martinez being punched at the jail will face no disciplinary action for not intervening. According to JSO spokesman Christian Hancock, “witnessing a crime does not constitute a crime.”